Started roughly five years ago, the growing BBN Racing partnership, launched with the idea of bringing new faces to the industry and the promise of rising Kentucky purses, has been enjoying its best year yet in 2023. Founded by Brendan O’Brien, Brian Klatsky, and Braxton Lynch, BBN has taken its partners to the Kentucky Derby (G1), the Breeders’ Cup, and to numerous stakes races around the country on its short ride thus far. BBN’s runners have topped $1.7 million in earnings, led by recent Clark Stakes (G2) winner and newly minted millionaire Trademark .

BBN co-founding partner and racing manager Braxton Lynch spoke with BloodHorse MarketWatch about forming the partnership, the benefits of being a BBN partner, and the tentative plans for Trademark in 2024.

MarketWatch: What do you believe makes the partnership so successful?

Braxton Lynch: First of all, our relationship with our trainers (Rusty Arnold and Vicki Oliver) is probably number one. We have a very open communication system with them. They understand what we’re trying to do and I think that’s one of the things that makes us unique. (Arnold and Oliver have) been very open to bringing new people to the industry and spending time with our partners. And that’s made people feel very welcome and want to come back to the game year after year.

MW: As one of the founding partners behind BBN, what was behind the decision to create the partnership?

BL: I’ve known Brian Klatsky, one of the other founding partners, for probably 25 years. I met him through Vicki. Years ago, Brian and I just started talking about how many friends we had that wanted to kind of dip their toe in the thoroughbred business but didn’t know how and didn’t want to go all in on one horse. So we had been churning the idea around for years and then we finally just figured out a way for people to not have to put up so much money up front. Our partners know how much money they are putting up, it’s a one-time capital contribution, so there are no bills for everybody. People were very comfortable doing this; they weren’t having to open their checkbooks. So we formed this plan, how to do it, raised the money, and got our first group going.

We got very lucky that Concrete Rose (grade 1 winner owned in conjunction with Ashbrook Farm) and Kentucky Ghost (won the 2022 Cliff Hanger Stakes for BBN) were part of that first group. And people loved coming to the races and loved coming to the barn. It really kind of took off from there.

MW: How many people make up the BBN partnership?

BL: We’ve got roughly 50-60 people in the syndicate. Everyone owns a piece of every horse. Everything we bought in 2023, all the yearlings we bought this year, everyone owns a piece. It’s nice that you’re not stuck on the sidelines watching someone else’s success. You get a piece of each horse. It’s like an annual stock portfolio.

MW: What are some of the goals for BBN going into the new year?

BL: We want to keep the momentum rolling. It would be fantastic if Trademark could continue his climb up the ranks. The competition is going to get harder for him but I think he could be our superstar for next year. We want to develop the babies, too. We have a whole group of 2-year-olds, some of whom haven’t started yet, so we want to develop them and have them ready to run by April and ready to roll the rest of the year.

MW: Trademark captured his first graded stakes in the Clark at Churchill Downs the day after Thanksgiving. BBN first bought this horse as a yearling and have raced him since he was a 2-year-old. Can you talk about the journey you guys have had with this horse?

BL: It’s great when a horse wins at 2, he actually won twice at 2, but then that gives you very limited options when they turn 3. I don’t want to say we were forced to go on the Derby trail, but there are no two-other-than (allowance races) for 3-year-olds that early in the year, so you have to run in stakes. In hindsight it might have been a little bit of a mistake with him, we pushed him pretty hard in some of those stakes. After the Blue Grass (Stakes, G1) we realized this and gave him the time off and let him regroup. We came back, picked some easier spots for him, and he kept stepping up to the plate each time. We put him in graded stakes again and he was right there and finally, he broke through in the Clark and won.

MW: Do you have any upcoming engagements penciled in for Trademark in 2024?

BL: Right now tentative at best we’re going to think about the Pegasus (World Cup Invitational, G1) for him. We’re going to see how he comes out of this race and see how he is when he gets down to Florida.

MW: BBN has been an active participant in the sales. How many horses do you typically try to buy every year, and which sales are on your radar?

BL: We try to buy around eight, that’s our target number. You try to swing at two or three early and kind of get your bigger-priced ones done and then you kind of fill it out with smaller prices that fit in our budget. But, funny enough, Trademark was a $42,000 yearling and Hidden Stash took us to the Derby. He was a $50,000 yearling. We’ve realized these things can come from anywhere; you just have to find them. It doesn’t have to be the most expensive horse that’s going to be the best.

We focus exclusively on the yearling sales and purchasing Kentucky-bred horses. And honestly, that’s another one of the reasons we jumped in on forming the syndicate was because we were hoping the purses would go up and up and up in Kentucky and we wanted to capitalize on that. And we started BBN before the HHR machines were on solid footing, so we were just hoping that was the trajectory we were anticipating. That was the idea we sold people on when we started it, that we would be able to run for these great Kentucky purses.

MW: What would you say to someone looking to get involved in BBN?

BL: We can’t guarantee terrific horses or wins or a certain amount of money, but we can definitely give people excitement, fun, entertainment, and an open-door policy. Everyone should feel like they own the horse and have full access.

The one thing we are the most proud of is that we’ve bought 27 horses now (since we started), not counting the 2-year-olds of this year, but all 27 have started. I believe of those 27 horses we’ve had 75% winners. We have 22% stakes winners and 6% graded stakes winners. We have the confidence now that we can do this.